A good two and a half weeks after the Bavarian state elections, the CSU and Free Voters sealed the new edition of their coalition, which has existed since 2018. The CSU chairman Markus Söder, Free Voters leader Hubert Aiwanger and the two parliamentary group leaders signed the new coalition agreement in Munich.
After their significant increase in votes in the Bavarian state elections, the Free Voters are getting a fourth ministry: They are taking over the digital department from the CSU, as the German Press Agency learned from coalition circles. The new digital minister will therefore be the previous parliamentary managing director of the Free Voters faction, Fabian Mehring. In return, however, they will reportedly have to hand over one of two state secretary positions to the Christian Socialists.
The other departments
The further division of departments therefore remains unchanged. In particular, the Ministry of Agriculture, over which the CSU and Free Voters had been fighting fiercely for a long time, remains in the hands of the CSU. The Free Voters will therefore retain the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of the Environment.
In addition to the Prime Minister, the CSU continues to provide the Head of the State Chancellery and the European Minister. In addition to the Ministry of Agriculture, it also retains the departments of Interior, Finance, Justice, Transport/Construction, Health, Social Affairs and Science/Arts.
According to Free Voters leader Hubert Aiwanger, the new Minister of Education will be Anna Stolz, the current State Secretary. She is supposed to replace her party colleague Michael Piazolo at the top of the department.
The Free Voters under party leader Hubert Aiwanger gained 4.2 points to 15.8 percent in the state elections on October 8th. They are now the second strongest force in the new state parliament after the CSU – with 37 members, ten more than before. The CSU had lost slightly from 37.2 to 37.0 percent – the number of its representatives remained constant compared to the last legislature.
Content and collaboration
Both parties have previously invited committee meetings to approve the contract, which is reportedly around 80 pages long. As much as the CSU and Free Voters tried to work together constructively in the very quiet negotiations, the poor personal relationship between Söder and Free Voters leader Hubert Aiwanger put a strain on the cooperation from the start.
The tense relationship culminated in the fact that there was no joint appearance by the party leaders during the entire negotiations, no photo or other camera image. The rounds were led by the heads of the state parliamentary groups, Klaus Holetschek (CSU) and Florian Streibl (Free Voters). Söder and Aiwanger only took part in the substantive negotiations a few times, always when fundamental compromises had to be found. In terms of content, only a preamble has been announced so far, which is intended to contain a commitment to democracy and a clear demarcation against the AfD.
The CSU and Free Voters had already governed together in the last legislative period. After the election on October 8th, they together have a stable majority of 122 of the 203 seats in the new state parliament.
